Properties of the City and the Priest
April 8, 2019
Commentary
In the division of the land Israel is to present to the Lord a portion of the land as a sacred district (vv. 1-6). This rectangle of land will be divided into two equal portions, each about 8.3 miles long and about 3.3 miles wide. The first portion, in which will be located the sanctuary, will be allotted to the priests for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary. The second portion will be allotted to the Levites, who serve in the temple, as their possession for towns to live in. Instead of being scattered throughout Israel as they were earlier (Josh. 21:1-42) the priests and Levites will reside near their place of ministry. This square of land, 8.3 miles in each of its four dimensions, will be located at the present site of Jerusalem (vv. 7-8). The prince will have the land bordering each side of the area formed by the sacred district and the property of the city.
Ezekiel used the reality of God’s promised future blessings as a springboard to exhort the princes in his day to repentance (vv. 9-12). Their basic problem was greed. So Ezekiel exhorted them to use accurate scales, an accurate ephah, and an accurate bath. An ephah was a measure for dry items and a bath was a measure for liquid items. They were each equivalent to approximately five gallons which was a 10th of a homer. A homer was approximately 50 gallons or about 6 bushels. Ezekiel listed specific amounts of produce they were to give the prince (vv. 13-17). The prescribed portion is to be proportionate to each individual’s wealth or lack of it. They are each to give a 60th of their wheat and barley (v. 13), one percent of their olive oil (v. 14), and one sheep from every 200 of their flocks (v. 15). This tithe or tax will be required of all the people for use by the prince in Israel.
The festivals where the offerings will be given will include the New Year feast (vv. 18-20), the Passover/Unleavened Bread feast (vv. 21-24), and the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles (v. 25).The Passover will last seven days, during which the people will eat bread made without yeast. The prince will provide the sacrifices for that period (vv. 22-24). The fact that the prince is to make a sin offering for himself is said by some to show that he is not Christ.
Application
Since greed is one of man’s basic problems I need to constantly be looking for ways I can share what I have to help meet the basic needs of others.
Ezekiel 45:1– 25 (NET)
1 “‘When you allot the land as an inheritance, you will offer an allotment to the Lord, a holy portion from the land; the length will be 8¼ miles and the width 3⅓ miles. This entire area will be holy. 2 Of this area a square 875 feet by 875 feet will be designated for the sanctuary, with 87½ feet set aside for its open space round about. 3 From this measured area you will measure a length of 8¼ miles and a width of 3⅓ miles; in it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. 4 It will be a holy portion of the land; it will be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary who approach the Lord to minister to him. It will be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 5 An area 8¼ miles in length and 3⅓ miles in width will be for the Levites, who minister at the temple, as the place for the cities in which they will live.
6 “‘Alongside the portion set apart as the holy allotment, you will allot for the city an area 1⅔ miles wide and 8¼ miles long; it will be for the whole house of Israel.
7 “‘For the prince there will be land on both sides of the holy allotment and the allotted city, on the west side and on the east side; it will be comparable in length to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border 8 of the land. This will be his property in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress my people, but the land will be allotted to the house of Israel according to their tribes.
9 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Enough, you princes of Israel! Put away violence and destruction and do what is just and right. Put an end to your evictions of my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. 10 You must use just balances, a just dry measure (an ephah), and a just liquid measure (a bath). 11 The dry and liquid measures will be the same: The bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure. 12 The shekel will be twenty gerahs. Sixty shekels will be a mina for you.
13 “‘This is the offering you must offer: a sixth of an ephah from a homer of wheat, a sixth of an ephah from a homer of barley, 14 and as the prescribed portion of olive oil, one-tenth of a bath from each cor (which is ten baths or a homer, for ten baths make a homer); 15 and one sheep from each flock of 200, from the watered places of Israel, for a grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offering, to make atonement for them, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 All the people of the land will contribute to this offering for the prince of Israel. 17 It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, the grain offering, and the drink offering at festivals, on the new moons and Sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel; he will provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.
18 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you must take an unblemished young bull and purify the sanctuary. 19 The priest will take some of the blood of the sin offering and place it on the doorpost of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the doorpost of the gate of the inner court. 20 This is what you must do on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins inadvertently or through ignorance; so you will make atonement for the temple.
21 “‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you will celebrate the Passover, and for the seven days of the festival bread made without yeast will be eaten. 22 On that day the prince will provide for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering. 23 And during the seven days of the feast he will provide as a burnt offering to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams, all without blemish, on each of the seven days, and a male goat daily for a sin offering. 24 He will provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a gallon of olive oil for each ephah of grain. 25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he will make the same provisions for the sin offering, burnt offering, and grain offering, and for the olive oil, for the seven days.
Illustration: What Do You Want on Your Tombstone
What do you want on your tombstone? If your life could be boiled down to a phrase what would it be? Anger, Greed, Kind, Love, Selfish, etc.